There are innumerable petroleum oil wells bored into the oceanic floor by highly evolved modern technological devices to tap the petroleum (crude oil) reservoirs. Many oil wells are clustered in the Gulf of Mexico, Arabian sea, and such oceanic grounds, often of significant distance from the coast line, such wells bored through the ocean floor as far deep as a mile from the surface waters, to find their way into the underground oil containments spread many miles in area. Oil is collected from the wells into surface tanks in moderate containers, or into receptacles as large as ships.
The drilling and production of petroleum oil from the earth's mantle in the ocean floor is shrouded in risk and great hazard to the natural environment that includes both the marine life forms and the terrestrial ecosystem adjacent. The greatest hazard is the ignition of the entrained highly inflammable gases like Methane, causing dangerous fires coupled with the risk of oil spewing and polluting the sea water. Such two man-made calamities at the same time can be uncontrollable with available resources, and utterly devastating to the healthy existence of the earth's planetary life forms. For these reasons, error-proof safety systems in under-water bore well digging, and highly trained personnel are required by law in all countries engaged in significant oil production. Despite such stringent laws, system failures and catastrophic results did occur historically, and are still occurring, though the derived remedial measures through each ‘adverse-event experience’ uniquely different from the other in some form or other, are still nascent and less than perfect.
Recent event in the gulf shores of Mexico (involving BP oil company's oil well under construction, the Deep Water Horizon), wherein the ignition of the entrained Methane gas and its fire that continued unstopped for 36 hours, culminated in collapse of the surface structure of the oil well, resulting in an ever increasing gusher from the source. Several different attempts from BP oil company's technological, team to contain the spewing geyser from finding its way into the body of water and into the gulf shores, had failed, mostly due to the inherently limited robotic attempts, involved in a moderately deep aquatic habitat.
As any unforeseen adversity can happen at any time before the completion of the well to its last functional detail, safety measures to weather off such events at any step of the construction have to be in place, before beginning to undertake such operation. This CIP application enumerates a model of a Detachable Island Rig (DIR). This is one among the diverse measures described in the parent application by the Inventor Applicant, said measures however working in synchrony, to weather off any unforeseen event throughout the well construction and well operation. For the information of the said devices otherwise operative, the original application (titled as ‘Emergency Salvage of a Crumbled Oceanic Oil Well’; U.S. Pat. No. 9,175,549) may be consulted. The original application is also a parent application for yet another CIP application enumerating prototype models of a ‘Subsea Level Gas Separator of Oil Well Effluent’, that include means and methods to be incorporated, beneficially at the most proximate site of the well head feasible, and at the earliest occasion, for preventing a giant gas bubble formation so as to keep the rig from being a venue of danger, difficult to contain. The subject matter is contextually relevant to any oil company, being also preventive in scope, of otherwise catastrophic and totally devastating consequences of a rig-fire. A CIP of this application will further disclose to the last functional detail, a model of an ‘emergency fire-escape’ accessible through a DIR, and also a similar model with some additional provisions that is workable to construct a ‘fire-escape’ for existing rigs (like most prevalent jack-up rigs) without a DIR/basement, however availing similar protections. The basic principles of an under-water ‘fire-escape’ is outlined in this disclosure, that has scope for many applicable ramifications.
Many inadvertent and unforeseen consequences were/are inherent to such ventures as the deep sea explorations and the like, shrouded in dangers and never ceasing mystery, and always counting on the tides of nature, yet to be conquered by the technological sophistication. Accordingly, the Author Inventor is neither legally liable nor personally responsible for any inadvertent errors or for any ‘adverse events’ difficult to differentiate either as a mere association or as a consequence of the application of the structural and procedural information herein enumerated. Structural or procedural application of this disclosure in different situations, innumerable and unique, is a personal choice. Furthermore, analyzing, and responding swiftly as needed, to diverse and unforeseen situations, still remain as the professional discretion, and the deemed responsibility of the involved company and its technological associates participating in the day to day practice in the implementation of this invention, in part or as a whole.
A drilling rig in its simplest form can be defined as an unit of equipment built to penetrate the superficial and/or deeper aspects of the earth's crust. The rigs can be built as small and portable to be moved by single person. However, they can be of enormous size and also suitably provided for complexity of functioning, so as to house equipment used to: drill oil wells; sample mineral deposits that can impede functional units; identify geographical reservoirs; and install underground utilities. Large units of drilling rigs, generally configured as more permanent land or marine based structures in remote locations are also facilitated with living quarters for laboring crews involved in well construction, at times hundreds in number. The rig can be permanently based in the sea, or floating with partial submersion.
Based on the cost of the multiple equipment of the rig and the life of personnel involved, even a major part of a permanently based rig may be constructed as a detachable island from the base structure and the area of conductor platform, the possible site of the initial fire or explosion. The detachable island is devised to be separated from said inciting site of fire, by a stretch of fire-proof corridor of sufficient length. Ground stability can be a considerable factor for the oil companies in opting for a permanent base. In the model herein described, the Detachable Island Rig is devised as an immovable structure with desired ground stability, yet with schema of provisions to quickly steer away from the permanent base platform, and the adjacent conduction platform, if the ‘fire alarm’ goes off as a warning to the crew.